Twenty dollars later, Kel and I became the proud owners of a giant box of locally grown peaches, each one picture perfect. Peaches grow everywhere in Bountiful, weighing down the gnarled trees in nearly every backyard, tempting us – begging us to relieve the poor branches of their juicy payload. Yes! we reply, but quickly remember that we would be trespassing. Peaches are summer – the beginning of the end of summer – and baking a peach pie is a sacred rite of the season.

I’ve done nothing special or innovative here. I just baked a standard peach pie; cutting way back on the amount of sweetener simply because these peaches were as sweet as candy just as they were. Why mess with a classic? So, I’m not including a recipe here. Buy yourself a mess of peaches (8-10 will do), dig up your mom’s tried-and-true crust recipe and get to work.

This is an ode to peaches and freshly-baked pie; warm nights, Queen Anne’s lace, the chainsawing of crickets, gardens gone wild and the whiff of melancholy that accompanies the precious, honeyed days of late summer.

Your crust might not fully cooperate (as mine did not) and it may become a homely mess once placed onto a plate (as mine did), but it will taste sweet and delicious (as mine did). It will taste like summer and make you want to hang on to every last second of August even as the days get shorter. The memory of your peach pie just might carry you through the dark days of January and February. Remember, those peach trees will be out there, covered in snow, racking up the necessary cold hours, dreaming of the spring to come and the chance to overload their branches yet again with golden-red fruit.

Important Serving Note: a homemade peach pie is best served alongside a generous scoop of dairy-free vanilla ice cream. It’s simply a matter of respect.

I second that motion, that pie demanded respect. I’m wishing I didn’t obsessively store everything in my pantry in glass containers as soon as I get home from the store so that I would have the Bob’s pie crust recipe handy. Must. google. it.

I love how rustic it looks! We get some delicious peaches from Palisade, CO and they are perfectly in season now. I don’t have a hand-me-down recipe for crust (or any pie for that matter) but I bet I can find one!

I kind of winged it, Sophie. I sliced 8 peaches; prepared a pie crust using vegan butter, whole wheat pastry, water and a little salt; then made a crumble with whole wheat pastry flour, vegan butter and some maple sugar. I mixed the peaches with the crumble and everything went into the crust. If you’d like the specifics on the crust, let me know :-)!

What beautiful pie! I tried to look for the recipe of the pie crust… Is it this recipe one? http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes.php?recipe=841
Well, my mother doesn’t have a tried-and-true crust recipe, so I had to look for one 😉 Here where I live, traditionally we don’t make that sort of pies, but I would love to try it!

I have always wanted to try to make a pie but have been terrified to give it a try. My mom always told me that pies are one of the hardest things to make (She makes a fantastic apple pie). I’m going to have to give it a try at some point…this just looks so good!